Our simulations show that larger amounts of meteorite collisions with the planet around this time could have driven the subduction process, explaining the formation of many zircons around this period, as well as the increase in magnetic field strength.”Coauthor Simone Marchi from the Southwest Research Institute, in the US, adds that the study throws up the question of how much the structure of Earth and other rocky planets is the result of collisions that took place billions of years ago.“This work shows there is a strong connection between impacts and geophysical evolution capable of drastically altering a planet's evolution,” she says....